Neural computation for innate behaviors in the superior colliculus The long-term goal of the proposed research is to understand how the brain makes sense of the onslaught of sensory data to extract just the few bits of relevant knowledge needed to make a decision. Specifically we will focus on innate behaviors of the laboratory mouse, such as the escape from a threat, the pursuit of small prey, and visual navigation. These are robust and reliable behaviors that require rapid and sensitive detection and localization of specific features in the visual scene. Mammals have two brain areas dedicated to visual processing: the thalamo-cortical pathway and the superior colliculus. The superior colliculus (SC) is the evolutionarily more ancient pathway, shared with non-mammalian vertebrates. It receives direct sensory input from the retina, and its output neurons produce motor signals that can steer the animal's movements. In general terms, the superior colliculus is thought to identify the most salient points in the scene for the purpose of overt orienting actions. It may also direct the orienting of covert neural resources, like when we ?pay attention? to a location in the scene. In recent research we identified three aspects of neural computation in the SC that extend much beyond the processing performed in the retina. On the background of this work, combined with earlier analysis, we developed a hypothetical model of neural processing within the SC. Here we propose to test key aspects of this model, with the goal of developing its quantitative details such that it correctly accounts for the extraction of salient image features from the visual scene. The research combines behavioral methods, large-scale electrical and optical recordings of neural activity, manipulations of neural circuitry, circuit tracing tools, and circuit modeling. We will pursue the following aims: (1) Understand the unusual functional anatomy of the SC whereby different parts of the visual field emphasize different visual features. (2) Determine how the SC achieves the extraction of select visual features with both specificity and invariance. (3) Understand an intriguing form of image memory in the SC that suppresses the response to familiar stimuli. Two common themes connect these aims: Do these neural computations require a contribution from the visual cortex? And what is the role of different cell types in the underlying neural circuits? If these aims are achieved, they will contribute to an integrated understanding of how the brain reliably and automatically identifies the most salient features of the environment, an essential function for our interactions with the world. In turn that will help illuminate failure of that process, as occurs in various psychiatric disorders of attention.
Neural computation for innate behaviors in the superior colliculus How does the brain make sense of the onslaught of sensory data to extract the few bits of relevant knowledge needed to make a decision? We will study this process in the circuits of the superior colliculus, an evolutionarily ancient brain area that links visual input from the eye to movement decisions. The research will lead to a better understanding of how we reliably direct attention to the salient features of the environment, and how those attentional processes may fail in certain brain disorders.
